PESHAWAR: Chief Minister Pervez Khattak has directed the officials concerned to finalise beautification plan of Peshawar that has already consumed around Rs1 billion during the last four and half years.

He also directed the departments concerned to hand over Pir Zakori Flyover on the Ring Road/GT Road Intersection Peshawar to the Bus Rapid Transit project that was launched last month, said an official statement here on Thursday.

The chief minister presided a meeting to review progress on the developmental schemes as a part of the beautification plan of Peshawar, Mardan and Nowshera.

The meeting was informed about different developmental packages in Peshawar, Mardan and Nowshera that included service roads on Ring Road, Pir Zakori Flyover Peshawar, Pabbi and Nowsehra, the drain and sanitation system improvement in Sheikh Maltoon and construction of Jawad Chowk, Charsadda and Katlang Chowk in Mardan.

CM chairs meeting to review progress on development schemes

It is worth mentioning that government has spent around Rs1billion on the beautification of Peshawar, especially GT Road from Hayatabad to Chamkani including development of green belt.

Peshawar Development Authority has utilised Rs80 million on the green belt along both lanes of GT Road which was recently removed to construct BRT.

The authority had fixed artificial flower pots that cost millions of rupees. The pots were removed two years ago.

The statement said that the meeting was informed about the completion of 18 kilometres service road, streetlights and uplifting of shops on the southern part of Ring Road Peshawar while relocation of 19 poles of Wapda, flyover on Charsadda Road and the overall drain design at the northern side.

Mr Khattak directed the officials concerned to complete the master plan having different projects and road communication, beautification, Hayatabad and University roads.

He said that face lifting of Peshawar should be visible and the beautification plan should be completed.

He directed the officials to remove all the irritants hindering the whole process of development. He hoped that all the projects would be completed towards the end of December.

The meeting was informed that the completion of service roads in Peshawar would take another month and would stand completed in January. The meeting was also briefed about the uplifting of Sheikh Maltoon Township in Mardan, construction of different roads and replacing the existing sewerage system and construction of another part in Mardan.

The Jawad Chowk Flyover would cost Rs385 million and Charsadda Chowk Flyover would cost Rs405 million.

The chief minister ordered beautification of Mardan with focus on completion of design for all the projects.

Meanwhile, Mr Khattak presided over another meeting to review progress on the Bus Rapid Transit Peshawar. He directed the officials to ensure tendering for the construction of parking plazas and asked them to coordinate with the information secretary for timely display of advertisement.

Published in Dawn, November 17th, 2017